Remember When
by Cinnamon Clover
Summary: <html><head></head>[Sequel to "The Price of Freedom"] It seemed like it was a lifetime ago, it felt like it was yesterday. They knew what had to be done. They didn't have the luxury of tomorrow anymore. The final stand was now. Sonic threw a blow, a bright light exploded, they were gone. Three years have passed, and they were still so far from home.</html>
1. January Thirteenth

**Author's Note:**

As always, I will start with thank you. Thank you to everyone who has read _The Price of Freedom_ (NOTE: This is a sequel. You should read _The Price of Freedom_ prior to this). My thanks also goes to anime . rules . XD for following, anime . rules . XD and Skyefall O. Bunnymund for favoriting, and werewolf99 and Eggman hater for reviewing. It's always way past cool to be appreciated for your efforts, whether it be writing the story or reading it.

I especially want to thank Eggman hater for following up with on the PM I sent him/her.

Now on with the story!

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><p>Remember When...<p>

Chapter One: January Thirteenth

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><p>Disclaimer: This is a non for profit work and does not claim ownership for any characters or locations in this story. All that is claimed to belong to the author is this story. Sonic the Hedgehog and all canon material is owned by Sega. Sonic Underground is not part of canon continuity, but shall be treated likewise and, while the author is unsure of who owns said unofficial continuity, knows it is not her.<p>

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><p>Angel Island felt incredibly empty today.<p>

It's not that it didn't usually feel empty, but this cold January date especially tended to remind him how lonely the island really was. The temperature felt sharper, the snow felt colder, and the wind always seemed to whisper her name, _'Sonia... Sonia...'. _

Yet, at the same time, the crystals hanging from the trees were so much more beautiful today, too. They shimmered and glowed as the light passed through them, like little twinkling stars set out on display.

That's why she had chosen this rather bleak January day, and that's also why he hated it.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

A chill ran up the red echidna's spine, more so in pain than in cold.

It wasn't fair, it just wasn't fair. Why did he have to keep on living, if his mate couldn't be there with him?

...

He named the island Angel Island in her honor. He never shared this bit of information with anyone, and nobody here would ever be able to piece this together. Except Sonic. If the blue blur ever managed to connect the two however, he never brought it up.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

Knuckles so badly wished this day could be over. Everyday he went without seeing her felt like a year, and each time this date came around, it was like the new year would never come.

_'No. No sulking,' _he chided himself as he wiped some droplets of moisture away, mindful of his glove's sharp spikes, _'They'll be here any second. Sonic won't be crying today, and neither will I.'_

He told himself this, but he knew it was a lie. He and Sonic would both lose their fair share of tear droplets today, just as they had for the last three years, but not until they knew Tails was gone. He knew if he started now, the water works wouldn't stop until long after the young kitsune had figured out they were hiding something from him.

He didn't know what excuse the hedgehog had given his little brother, but he was glad it had been working as long as it had. Neither he, nor Sonic, wanted to talk about it.

_Whoosh._

The sound of Tails landing the Tornado.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

The sound of wind rustling against the frozen landscape. Knuckles tried not to cringe, keep up the picture of toughness he had always took.

It always took every iota of strength to keep up his usual facade when this date rolled around.

Before had even realized it, the red biplane was gone and the blue blur was sitting down on the bottom step of the shrine with his head between his legs, still as a log. Every other day of the year, this body language was completely foreign to the hedgehog. If they could see him, it would have probably scared his siblings out of their wits.

If they were around, however, he wouldn't have stayed as still, as reverent, as he'd been since arriving.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

Sonic _did_ have respect for the sacred green gem, just not the same way Knuckles did. He respected the Master Emerald by keeping the Chaos Emeralds out of the evil doctor's hands, not by being still. This still, stone like reverence wasn't towards the shrine, or the ancient relic that it held.

No, rather it was for the date, and what this meant for him and knuckle-headed friend.

It meant never fulfilling the prophecy. He had never won the battle. He hadn't lived to see the day when the kingdom of Mobotropolis was restored, freedom and all.

It meant never meeting his mom. Knuckles had met his mom once, years ago, but he couldn't remember what she looked like. Even if he could, a simple description of what the exiled queen looked like would never fill the void in Sonic's heart.

It meant never seeing Sonia and Manic ever again. This is what crushed them the most, especially on this date, January thirteenth, the three year anniversary of the wedding day that never came. That shook Knuckles to the core, not being able to see his beautiful Sonia.

Three years and a day since they had last seen their home, _their_ Mobius. This wasn't their Mobius, even if it shared a lot of similarities with their home world. it made them wonder if this is what the world had looked like before Robotnik, now known as Eggman, had overthrown Sonic's mother.

Slowly picking himself up, Knuckles made his way too his would have been brother in law. They had a long day of tears ahead of them, and the sooner they started, the less likely it was Tails would find them crying.

"Sonic," his words came out as a whisper, but sounded as loud as a shout against the near silent landscape, "You ready-"

"Yeah," he didn't let the red echidna finish. He knew what his friend was going to say.

It was painfully ironic how slowly the blue hedgehog got to his feet before following Knuckles to the place where they battled the egg shaped tyrant.

Any other day of the year, Knuckles would have agreed with that statement, but this day wasn't the other three hundred and sixty four. It was January thirteenth, the day that he was supposed to be wed.

_Sonia... Sonia..._


	2. From the Eyes of a Guardian

**Author's Note:**

First off, this is a working chapter, as in it is complete, but it's still got some kinks to work out. Ok, now since that bit of information is out of the way, lets skip to the formalities.

As always, thank you to anime . rules . XD for following _The Price of__ Freedom, _Skyefall O. Bunnymond and anime . rules . XD for favoriting _The Price of__ Freedom, _werewolf99 and Eggman hater for reviewing _The Price of__ Freedom, _anime . rules . XD for following _Remember When, _anime . rules . XD and Skyefall O. Bunnymond for favoriting _Remember When, _and, lastly, Eggman hater and Ghostkid33 for reviewing _Remember When._

I'm sorry this is a few hours past Sunday, but I hope you enjoy it regardless. Now on with the story!

* * *

><p>Remember When...<p>

Chapter Two: From the Eyes of a Guardian

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><p>Disclaimer: This is a non for profit work and does not claim ownership for any characters or locations in this story. All that is claimed to belong to the author is this story. Sonic the Hedgehog and all canon material is owned by Sega. Sonic Underground is not part of canon continuity, but shall be treated likewise and, while the author is unsure of who owns said unofficial continuity, knows it is not her.<p>

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><p>It seemed like it was a lifetime ago, it felt like it was yesterday. They knew what had to be done. Prophecy or not, they knew this would either end the war, or end the world. They had to stop him. They had to protect them, all those who weren't strong enough to fight. They had to finish what they started, for all those they had lost along the way. They had to stop this madman before he killed them all.<p>

They hadn't known that this battle would be transdimensional.

It had been the same song and dance as it had been for a while, Sleet and Dingo try, unsuccessfuly, to run off with one of the chaos emeralds they collected, he and the Sonic Underground defeat them. Rinse and repeat.

Or, at least, that's what they thought it was.

It wasn't often that Robotropolis' tyrant came for a visit, and he wasn't alone.

_'We're ready' Knuckles thought to himself as he and Sonic stood at the ready on the outer limits of the Floating Island, waiting for the EggCarrier carrying Sleet and Dingo to open its hatch._

_They had gotten an intelligence report from one of their undercover aristocrat agents but an hour before that a rumor was going around, saying that Robotnik was going to try something with the chaos emerald again._

_It had taken a minute to retrieve the other five chaos emeralds, which they had sought and found after the second attempt Sleet and Dingo had at stealing the emerald, from their hiding place. It had taken half an hour to send the rest of the Freedom Fighters, including Sonia and Manic, the blue blur's brother and sister, back to HQ. _

_They were ready, they had the power of chaos on their side._

_A sudden burst of steam broke his train of thought as the door to the shuttle fell downwards to the sand._

_"Uh oh." he heard himself and Sonic swallow almost simultaneously._

_They weren't greeting two bounty hunters. They were greeting a oil run army lead by the egg shaped dictator himself._

No, rather, he brought a whole battalion of bots, including two fallen friends, to the party. A familiar light purple robotic hedgehog and an equally familiar red metallic echidna.

_They were so close yet so far! After going through about one hundred SWATbots, they thought they were going to finish off the the tyrant._

_They were wrong._

_They had two more bots in theif way. At the end of the charge, there they were, Sonic's Uncle Chuck and Knuckles' Grandpa Athair, cold and in the metal. _

It had been too much for them to handle, it still hurt them too much to remember it now, three years and a day later. They could recall it vaguely, that they had defeated their childhood caretakers.

_"UNCLE CHUCK!"_

_"GRANDPA ATHAIR!"_

_"NO!" they screamed in unison as their family members dropped into the sea a mile down. There was no way they could survive that, metal or otherwise._

What happened next though, that was the real mystery. A bright, white light had swallowed them whole, that's when the mobians lost whatever control they did have.

_"Grandpa Athair," the grieving echidna wept into his trademark gloves as his legs gave from underneath him._

_That's when _it_ started._

It _started out as a dim light, like a flashlight on low batteries, but it progressively grew into a very bright dome of chaos-charged white._

_Using his hand to shield his eyes from the light, the last -yep, he really was the last one with his grandpa gone- echidna picked himself up and looked around as if asking 'what the heck is going on'._

_He never got to voice this though. Rather, the moment he was upright, the light source overcame him and an intense burning sensation was all that remained._

_It felt like it had gone for hours, but within five minutes his vision was obscured by darkness as he fell back to the relatively stable island._

When they woke up, they couldn't remember much. They couldn't remember their lives, their families, not even each other. They hadn't known at the time, and wouldn't remember or be able to connect to till much later, was that they had invoked chaos control on themselves, the Floating Island and Dr. Robotnik.

How were they supposed to know that the chaos emeralds could cause amnesia if not used properly?

Their memories eventually began to come back.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

The first memory to be reawakened to Knuckles was his beloved. Even now, three years after the freedom fighters' last stand, it was reminiscent of her. They were set to get married here, one the soon to be battle field, the day after.

It was around the time he started getting glimpses of his past that he he started to refer to his home as Angel Island, in honor of his true love, Sonia Angelica Hedgehog.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

Everything about the floating rock they now walked on reminded him of her.

He couldn't look at the snow without being reminded of their first date.

He couldn't smell the springtime blossoms without longing for her perfume.

He couldn't feel the sunshine without the memory of watching the sunrise hitting him full force.

He couldn't watch the moon without the loneliness of not being able to hold her close, like that night.

He couldn't look at the mountains without feeling the phantom lips of their first kiss, from when they saved the entire planet of Mobius nearly six years prior.

He couldn't look at the Master Emerald without seeing her gorgeous emerald orbs staring right back at him.

It was a cruel fate that he couldn't be with her, why did the Emerald have to mock him so?

He couldn't even listen to the gentle sound of the rustling wind without hearing her name whispered in his ears.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

It caused his heart too much pain to bear to admire the stars that lit up the evening sky. The twinkling lights reminded him too much of her, of her and her brother's story. Knuckles could barely manage their time on the Space Colony ARK without bursting.

Sonic hurt too, but his eyes always seemed glued on the ebony sky.

How could he?! After everything he lost, after losing those he held most dear to him, not once, not twice, not even three times, how could he keep his eyes on those jewel like celestial objects!?

But Knuckles knew.

_"The stars remind me," _he had once told the red echidna, _"They remind me of why I keep fighting on, they remind me of who I am fighting for, and they remind me this isn't either of our homes, and he's the reason we're not there yet."_

It wasn't a love of adventure or any of that stuffings he fed the others. They wouldn't understand, the others opposing Robotnik, or Eggman as they've more recently started calling him. Shadow and Silver might, but even that was a stretch.

He went through his own personal hell to ensure that he never gave up the fight against the mad doctor.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

There were days when Knuckles couldn't look at Sonic, the closest living being he had ever had to a brother or a friend, not just when he was a blur of blue either.

His eyes... her eyes... they both radiated with the same green glow.

It wasn't fair! It just wasn't fair! One of the few people he didn't desire to punch into infinity was in another universe, and one looked too much like the first for him to look in the eye!

_Sonia... Sonia..._

Part of him wanted to blame Sonic for them being here, after all, Sonic was the one to induce chaos control. It would be childish and immature, but still, part of him felt it was Sonic's fault.

The much larger portion of him knew the only person to blame for any of this would be the evil doctor.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

He wished the doctor was never born.

He knew his grandfather would be furious if had event found out, and that the Guardian was supposed to be pure of heart, but he really wished him to never be around.

He wished he could rid himself of this thought, but he just couldn't shake it.

All he had to do was listen to the wind, and he'd hear the name of his love, the girl he'd never see again.

_Sonia... Sonia..._


	3. Too Slow

**Author's Note:**

Again this is a working chapter, and not the absolute final project of this chapter. Now on with the thanks.

Thank you to anime . rules . XD for following _The Price of__ Freedom, _Skyefall O. Bunnymond and anime . rules . XD for favoriting _The Price of__ Freedom, _werewolf99 and Eggman hater for reviewing _The Price of__ Freedom, _anime . rules . XD for following _Remember When, _anime . rules . XD and Skyefall O. Bunnymond for favoriting _Remember When, _and, lastly, Eggman hater and Ghostkid33 for reviewing _Remember When. _By the way, yes Ghostkid33, this theory of mine was inspired by _Sonic X_.

* * *

><p>Remember When...<p>

Chapter 3: Too Slow

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><p>Disclaimer: This is a non for profit work and does not claim ownership for any characters or locations in this story. All that is claimed to belong to the author is this story. Sonic the Hedgehog and all canon material is owned by Sega. Sonic Underground is not part of canon continuity, but shall be treated likewise and, while the author is unsure of who owns said unofficial continuity, knows it is not her.<p>

* * *

><p>It seemed like it was a lifetime ago, it felt like it was yesterday. They knew what had to be done. Prophecy or not, they knew this would either end the war, or end the world. They had to stop him. They had to protect them, all those who weren't strong enough to fight. They had to finish what they started, for all those they had lost along the way. They had to stop this madman before he killed them all.<p>

And they did... or at least that attack.

_Too slow._

He could of stopped him. He could have put an end to it then and there, but he hesitated.

_You're too slow!_

His Uncle Chuck had always taught him that killing was never alright, but sometimes was necessary in their line of work.

_Too slow, Sonic!_

He had to end a many roboticized critters chances of ever being restored to flesh and blood. They never stood up well against a spin dash.

__You're too slow, Mr. Fastest Thing Alive!__

But this was different. The roboticized citizens of Robotropolis —Mobotropolis— had lost the ability to feel pain. They had lost their souls, they wouldn't care that they were being destroyed unless it was in a brief moment of memory relapse. **But he could.**

__Sonic _Ogilvie_ Hedgehog, too slow to stop the "good" doctor.__

He could have killed the doctor. He could have stopped the pain, the death, the destruction. But he didn't. He couldn't kill in cold blood.

_What good is rolling around at the speed of sound when you hesitate in battle?_

He always said never look back. Maybe he should follow his own advice. Truth was, he _always_ looked back. He kept his sights on the stars, remembering his family. Remembering his home...

And remembering this wasn't it.

He knew they had a one in one million chance of ever going home ever again. It was all just a fluke, arriving in this universe. No one even knew that this wasn't his and Knuckles' home, that they themselves were aliens. Maybe G.U.N. knew. They probably didn't pay any mind if they did, putting the fact that they had saved the world above the fact that they were, essentially, staying here illegally.

They had done the same with Silver and Blaze when they showed up in this universe. They didn't care if the flirtatious bat satisfied her taste for jewels, either. So long as she did her job, they would bail her out.

_She reminds him of Manic._

It would be wrong of him to deny it, but it wouldn't be giving his brother any credit to link the gem hungry thief to him. His brother didn't steal out of greed. She did.

His brother had grown up in a thief guild, learned under the best, and had shown great promise for a career in thieving. It was all he knew and he had thrown the first two out the window the day he met his siblings, and thrown out the latter after his first encounters with Max. He knew that he had to stop, so he did.

Rouge had all the opportunities, all the resources to change her ways. She just didn't want to, and continued to do so on a near constant basis.

As far as he knew, Manic hadn't stolen anything in over five years.

Except for the mad scientist's plans. That's probably all they had in common, to be honest.

Somedays, Sonic wasn't sure why he considered her an ally. She was just as likely to steal all the chaos emeralds for herself as she was to help them, was known to be a turncoat, and flirted unashamedly with the already engaged Knuckles.

Knuckles was a naïve fool at times. He had no clue that this bat even flirting with him. In a way, that was best. As much as Sonic was driven mad with this behavior, the G.U.N. agent never knew that he was engaged to another. He hadn't told her, and Knuckles was as blind to her sport as Amy was blind to, well, everything without her contacts.

Amy reminded him of his sister, except far more needy and much more likely to kill him.

And she wanted to hug him every time he came back from a run. Sonia was far more likely to scold him for running off.

To be honest, they weren't alike much either. All they had in common were superficialities: pink, hedgehog, female.

...

Sonic wondered how his sibs had taken it. After three years, they probably thought he was dead.

They probably cried a lot at first. They had lost a lot in the war. Friends, homes, band instruments, you name it, they've lost it. They had probably attended more funerals in their short eighteen years than most see in a lifetime.

After that they probably took reign over the kingdom, if mother hadn't been found. Sonia would be a great queen, and Manic would rule along side her. Together, they would restore the kingdom and its citizens' freedom.

Just like Mom would have wanted them to.

Just like _he_ would have wanted them to.

He missed them so much, he didn't know what to do. It felt like being pulled apart then being forced back together again. It hurt him so much that he could barely move, barely stifle a sound of agony. It hurt so much.

But it was his fault, he supposed.

_'It's juice and jam time!' the crown prince of mobius thought to himself as he stretched out his legs, all the while keeping his eyes glued on the egg shaped pod carrying his two favorite bounty hunters, Sleet and Dingo._

If only he'd been less cocky.

_Adjacent to him was his soon to be brother in law, holding a fighting stance. He was ready. They were ready._

If only they had more back up.

_A sudden burst of steam pulled his attention away from his warm-ups and back to the carrier, and a simultaneous 'uh oh' was heard. This was bad. They weren't facing the two hunters. They were facing the bots and their master._

If only if they had taken more precautionary measures.

_'One two! One two! Through and through' the hedgehog mused to himself as he took out the last five SWATbots. This, of course was the easy part of the job. Now came the tough part._

If only they had been less arrogant.

_Defeating their family members._

If only he'd been more absolute.

_"UNCLE CHUCK!" Sonic cried, but he was already gone._

_Sonic couldn't bear to watch as they tumbled into the ocean below. Instead, he turned back to his greatest vendetta._

_"Sonic... I"_

_Sonic didn't let him finish, spin dashing him to the ground._

He could easily kill him, just snap the engineer's neck. It wouldn't be hard... but he couldn't. Sonic couldn't remember what happened after that. All he remembered was waking up after that in Green Hill Zone.

He had spared him that moment of hesitation, but it was a moment too many.

He was too slow.


	4. We Remember

**Author's Note:**

After a month hiatus, I return with chapter four of _Remember When_. This chapter is not the finest, and I explored some new ideas (notice anything strange with Knuckles?). I might even decide to up and replace it when I start on the next chapter. Don't worry, we're getting to the good stuff soon!

Thank you to anime . rules . XD for following _The Price of__ Freedom, _Arnia the fox and anime . rules . XD for favoriting _The Price of__ Freedom, _werewolf99 and Eggman hater for reviewing _The Price of__ Freedom, _anime . rules . XD, JacetheHedgehog, and Toko Apple for following _Remember When, _anime . rules . XD and Arnia the fox for favoriting _Remember When, _and, lastly, Eggman hater and Ghostkid33 for reviewing _Remember When._ Oh, and Ghostkid33 gets a million brownie points for guessing my inspiration!

* * *

><p>Remember When...<p>

Chapter Four: We Remember

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: This is a non for profit work and does not claim ownership for any characters or locations in this story. All that is claimed to belong to the author is this story. Sonic the Hedgehog and all canon material is owned by Sega. Sonic Underground is not part of canon continuity, but shall be treated likewise and, while the author is unsure of who owns said unofficial continuity, knows it is not her.<p>

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><p>The walk to the clearing, the clearing that had at one point been ready to house a wedding, was met with silence, only being punctuated by the crunching of ice beneath their feet and the sound of the breeze as it caused an upset in the branches.<p>

_Sonia... Sonia..._

A heavy blanket of silence continued to fall over the two friends as they stood, candles in hand, around a stone vigil. Two pictures rested on top of the cold ore, one, a beautiful fuchsia Erinaceinae dressed in a casual outfit of denim jeans and grey t-shirt with her hands on her hips, obviously giving the camera person a death glare, the other, another hedgehog, this time a charming chartreuse fellow wearing an equally laid back tan vest and spinning a pair of drumsticks between his fingers. Underneath each picture was a small golden plaque, addressing the two pictured mobians.

**_ Princess Sonia Angelica Hedgehog_**

**_March 4th, 1987_**

**_Loving Sister, Loyal Friend_**

…

_**Prince Manic Wylie Hedgehog**_

__**March 4th, 1987**__

_**Caring Brother, Outspoken Friend**_

It was uncommon that the memorial's floral arrangement were of white roses, the flower of remembrance, not lilies and carnations, the flowers most associated with death and mourning. Not by any means unheard of, but still uncommon.

It was unusual that the only date listed was their birthday. Still not unheard of, but unusual.

It was different that the ones commemorated were still alive.

That, while not unheard of, was barely a whisper in the wind.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

A grimace passed the red echidna's face and an instinctive grunt of pain escaped his lips before he had a chance to stop it, if only for a moment. It didn't matter whether it was a second or a sonic second, the fragile blanket of silence was shattered like the ice beneath their shoes.

Sonic breathed. Not sobbed, not sniffled. Just breathed.

Then came a quiet whisper, as if it were another person talking, "We aren't ever going home, Knux."

It was the straw that finally broke the echidna's spines. His eyelids couldn't hold back the salty liquid from breaking through. He could no longer keep up his inner resistance against his whatever-it's-called that controls sobbing.

Sonic was fairing little better. Even with his vision blurred by tears, Knuckles could see his friend was hunching over in defeat to his own sorrows, and his ears had nothing to obscure the second set of sobs.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

He wasn't sure when the crying stopped the quiet sniffling began. He wasn't sure wether he stopped before Sonic or Sonic stopped before him. He wasn't sure about a lot of things on January 13th. It hurt too much to think.

He was sure about one thing, however.

After the sniffling had faded back into its original silence, Sonic was the first one to break it.

"I remember," the blue hedgehog started, his voice breaking as he spoke, "Meeting Sonia and Manic for the first time."

He heaved back a sob and continued, his tears almost droning out the words as he spoke, "It was at an underground club. We just fell in sync. Sonic Underground had performed its first gig before we said more than four words to each other."

The cobalt hedgehog flicked a droplet out of his eye and laughed, a 'this really hurts but laughing hurts less' laugh, but a laugh none the less. Knuckles knew he had more to say, but didn't push the issue.

Then Knuckles started laughing, and it wasn't till the whole meadow was full of insincere laughter. Each burst of mirth was wrong, silently screaming, 'it hurts, it hurts!'.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

Soon fits of laughter evolved into bursts of melancholy, though he wasn't sure when.

He wasn't sure about a lot of things on January 13th. It hurt too much to think.

The tears began running down their faces to better match their heartache.

Knuckles was the next to utter a word, or so he thinks. Everything blurred together.

"I remember watching the sunset with Sonia. You know, right after we retrieved that chaos emerald from Sleet and Dingo." the red echidna wasn't sure if he cried, laughed or something in between, "Then she kissed me and-"

He laughed. Against all things, he started laughing like there was no tomorrow. Sonic ended up dragging the red guardian's laughter-ridden body back to the shrine.

_Sonia... Sonia..._

He wasn't sure what happened after that. He wasn't sure about a lot of things on January 13th. It hurt too much to think.

The next thing he could recall was being on top of the shrine. Sonic was there, too. Knuckles looked into his friend's eyes and knew what hurt too much for words to say:

'_We remember'_

It hurt too much to think.

It hurt too much to remember.

_Sonia... Sonia..._


End file.
